Hunter Kozak, the Utah Valley University student who exchanged words with conservative activist Charlie Kirk moments before Kirk was shot and killed at a campus event, broke his silence Thursday in an emotional Instagram video and urged people not to celebrate the slaying.
Kozak, a mathematics student who was the final audience member to ask a question during the event’s Q&A, called the assassination "a tragedy" and said he was "grappling" with the violence while urging critics of Kirk to "stay peaceful." He said he had attended to challenge Kirk’s public claims linking transgender people to mass shootings but that the confrontation was meant to be civil.
Video captured the tense but brief exchange between Kozak and Kirk, who was sitting under a white tent and speaking into a handheld microphone when a single gunshot rang out. Kozak recalled asking how many transgender Americans had been mass shooters in the past decade; when Kozak said the number was five, the question-and-answer was interrupted by the shot that fatally struck Kirk in the neck.
In the roughly three-and-a-half minute Instagram message, Kozak said he had posted a previous video criticizing Kirk for suggesting that a suspected Minneapolis school shooter was transgender, a claim Kozak disputed. He said his purpose in attending the Utah Valley University event was to engage in conversation and challenge what he described as misleading narratives in conservative media.
"As much as I disagree with Charlie Kirk, I'm on the record for how much I disagree with Charlie Kirk," Kozak said. "But like… man, dude, he is still a human being. Have we forgotten that?" He appealed to people who viewed the killing as political retribution: "First off, you sick fing psychos that think this is the answer. It's not. It's fing not. It's awful. And a father doesn't have his kids anymore."
Kozak said he did not want the episode to be about him and noted his concern for the victim’s family, adding that he has a wife and two young children. He said the atmosphere on campus and online had been overshadowed by the violence and that many in his community were struggling to process the killing.
Law enforcement agencies continue to investigate the attack. The FBI on Thursday sought a person of interest and released two images showing an individual wearing a hat, sunglasses and a long-sleeve black shirt. Authorities said the shooter fired from a distant rooftop, appeared to be of college age and blended in with the campus population; investigators believe the shooter jumped from the roof and slipped away amid the chaos. State police said they had received more than 200 tips from the public and asked people to continue providing information, saying no tip was too small.
The killing has drawn intense national attention and raised questions about campus safety and political violence. Kirk was the founder of Turning Point USA and a frequent commentator on conservative media; the shooting at Utah Valley University came as he was speaking at a debate-style event that included an audience question-and-answer period.
Kozak’s remarks on Thursday underscored the immediate human toll of the attack while reasserting his opposition to celebrating violence. He said the goal of his earlier confrontation with Kirk had been to press for factual accuracy and civil conversation, not to incite harm, and he urged those reacting to the killing to show restraint as investigators work to identify and arrest the shooter.